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The revolution of the Internet of Things is creating a powerful new infrastructure where our technology and devices are connected with the world around us. And with great power comes great productivity!

There are countless ways IoT can save time and efficiency on a daily basis. Here are a few products and ideas for saving you an hour of productivity — every day.

Lost Devices

This might seem like it has a simple solution, but be honest with yourself: you’ve spent too much time looking for your phone at least once. Misplacing or losing everyday devices is not only time consuming but extremely stressful. Connecting to your location-specific data, is an extremely convenient feature of the connectivity that IoT provides. Both Android and Apple devices come with the capability to find your phone, and there are ways to set your smart hub, such as Google Home, to call your lost device through Automated Tasks, which leads us to…

Automated Tasks

Maybe the most powerful tool to automating and integrating IoT devices is through web tools for automated tasks. Platforms such as IFTTT and Zapier both provide the ability to set conditional statements that in turn, provide automation across your digital world. Want your smart home voice assistant to ring your lost phone? Just set it up online and ask away. Want your lights to trigger when you open your front door? Want your coffee machine to kick on when you wake up every morning? It's all just an automated task away.

At the office this capability is just as powerful. With the ability to set productivity apps to integrate with one another, and with your calendar, email, work devices and with other smart devices in the office — just take a look at the hundreds of pre-made “recipes” on the sites recommended and you’re sure to find something to save you time each and every day.

Lighting Control

One of the best ways to save time – and money – through IoT is with proper lighting controls. Using IoT and connected devices that are simple to setup and use, results in less facility management for your workspace – be it your own time or an employee’s. The first step in planning for IoT solutions in this space is building out the infrastructure needed to integrate systems now and in the future. Wattstopper Digital Lighting Management products from Legrand provide simple setup and management DLM enabled rooms in an office.

Travel

While it may be a home solution in practice, the ability for your devices to monitor the travel grid and suggest alternate routes or recommend you leave at an earlier time are critical to saving time at work. Sitting in an extended commute is a drastic waste of time in the commuter's life, and connecting your phone – and now, your vehicle – to the IoT network can help alleviate some of the problems.

Further considerations in improving workplace travel experience are ensuring you are connected to your work devices – be they lights, locks, or power points – in the event you are running late. Imagine the reduction in stress if you can conduct a task such as warming up a projector for an early morning meeting, or even getting the coffee pot brewing, to make sure you recover lost time from a slow commute.

Home Office and Automation

Blending work and home life is a reality of the changing working environment. And having the ability to connect digitally with your office from home is critical in that solution. This can be accomplished in a number of ways: through ensuring connected devices and accounts are accessible outside of the office, by working from shared server spaces on a cloud platform, or by utilizing elegant A/V solutions for meeting spaces that allow for telecommuting and virtual meetings.

To the final point, designing a functional and properly connected conference room on the business end can be critical. Solutions such as those offered by Middle Atlantic Products allow for the proper setup to integrate meeting spaces with IoT solutions for connectivity.

Saving an Hour

Combine these concepts and you are likely to save yourself quite a bit of time. The ability to automate, simplify and connect all of your devices – be they at work or home – will add up and can definitely make you more efficient and productive. This gives back precious time that you might be losing daily as you conduct busy work on your calendar invites, sit in traffic because you didn’t set your commute route with your connected devices, or if you’re – unfortunately – seeking out a misplaced phone.